ALL of them

Bingo! All the Scandinavian Democratic Socialist Countries have higher satisfaction and happiness indexes than the US.

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— NauticalN (@watermaidens.bsky.social) November 6, 2025 at 10:04 PM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee 

Ready?

 Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

Stand tall, Europe--the American people are counting on you

BREAKING: Statement by Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom:

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— Peter Stefanovic (@peterstefanovic.bsky.social) January 18, 2026 at 9:05 AM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

 

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. DLIX--Eagle-Eye Cherry: Save Tonight

Say a prayer for the Pretender, who started out so young and strong only to...be late again....

My introduction to this week's tune was when it was originally released as a single, though I can't recall if it was from hearing it on a Music on the TV channel or if it was the video on Much Music (have a hunch it was on Much Music because they played a lot of cool songs).  This is one I share with my oldest son--both of us very much liked the song, and at one time he made me a cassette tape (remember cassette tapes, boys and girls?) of this week's featured album, which I still have.  Though I can't say I've played it in a while as I couldn't begin to remember the last time I put a tape in a cassette deck....

Eagle-Eye Cherry (and, yes, Eagle-Eye is truly his given name) was born in Stockholm Sweden in 1968.  He originally set out to be an actor (and had a few minor roles from 1988-93), but after the death of his musician father in 1995 he began to focus on music.  Cherry wrote and composed his first album on an acoustic guitar in his bedroom studio, and it went on to become an international hit.  His Wikipedia bio is very light on the details of his career, but since his first hit he has appeared on several artists' albums, done some soundtrack work, and toured.  For his career he has released six studio albums (the last in 2023), one live album, and seventeen singles.  He is fluent in both Swedish and English.

Fun Fact:  Cherry came from a musical family.  His father was influential (he says, even though he first heard of him while doing this week's half-assed research) jazz trumpeter Don Cherry.  His half-sister is Neneh Cherry who had quite a bit of musical success as a solo artist in the U.K. in the nineties.  Both of his brothers (one sadly now deceased) and two of his step nieces are also musicians.

"Save Tonight" was Cherry's 1997 debut single from his debut album, the rather left wanting entitled Desireless.  The single hit #5 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top forty in twenty-two other countries.  The album peaked at #45 on the Billboard 200 but hit the top five in five other nations.  Both peaked at #2 in his native Sweden (so many cool kids in Sweden!).

"Save Tonight" tells the tale of a couple making the most of their last night together for a while, as the protagonist is leaving in the morning (where he's going and for how long is left up to us to guess).  The song opens with some nice acoustic guitar, and they carry the instrumentation throughout the song.  The drums give the song a rock-solid beat, snapping and cracking to the rhythm of the lyrics.  There's also a nice instrumental break which features a wailing electric guitar that echoes the young lovers sweet and sorrowful parting (may have borrowed that line from somewhere...).  Cherry's vocals are the cherry (so to speak) on the top, giving voice to both their desire and their fear.  A catchy as catchy can melody and chorus round it out.  In the end, it's what emaycee lives for:  a bodacious slice of pop music pie.

Lyric Sheet:  "It ain't easy to say goodbye/Darlin', please, don't start to cry /'Cause, girl, you know I've got to go, oh/And, Lord, I wish it wasn't so..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

Have a feeling Donnie's going to be told to take many a hike

US embassy in Stockholm asks the city department to end its DEI politics with a bizarre contract Swedes tell the US to take a hike, saying absurd demands swedenherald.com/article/usa-...

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— Sven-Erik Volberg (@volberg.bsky.social) May 7, 2025 at 4:49 AM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

 

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. DXV--Peter Bjorn and John: Young Folks

 It's Thanksgiving time and I work in the grocery business...and that'll have to do for the excuse as to why this one is a week and a day late....

This week's tune is another in a long line of songs sent to me by my darling daughter on one of her mix CDs, and I instantly fell in love with it.  As an added bonus, flash forward about twenty years when I found the full CD for this week's song for a dollar at a library sale, and it turned out to be a hell of an album.  One song, two wins--thanks, darling daughter!

Peter Bjorn and John (taken from the first names of the three band members, who apparently don't believe in commas) formed in Sweden in 1999 and originally played for their own amusement.  Somewhere along the way they must have realized that they had more than a little talent, because their playing for fun turned into a twenty-five-year career that's still going.  As is sometimes the case here at Friday Night Jukebox, their career history isn't all that interesting so I'm just going to cut to the chase.  For their career, Peter Bjorn and John have released nine studio albums (only three of which have charted), nine EPs. and twenty-two singles (only one of which charted, for all intents and purposes).  Despite the modicum of commercial success (they have had a fair amount of critical success), kudos to them for turning it into a quarter of a century of getting to play music for a living.

"Young Folks" was the first single from their 2006 album, the rather obstructingly named Writer's Block.  The song was the only single of their career to chart, reaching #13 in the U.K. and #110 (with a weak ass bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.  The album was their most commercially successful, reaching, ahem, #68 in Great Britain and #155 on the Billboard 200, which, to be fair, were considerably higher charting than any album I ever released.

Fun Fact:  The song is known for the whistling that it begins with (Rolling Stone put it in their list of the fifteen best whistling songs), but the whistle originally was just a temporary fill in for another instrument.  Such is fate!

Essentially, "Young Folks" is a duet between Peter (Moren) and Victoria Bergsman of The Concretes (he writes, as if he has any idea who The Concretes are).  And what a duet it is--wonderful harmonies and an infectious melody coupled with the drumline (including maracas!) and the bassline to create a song that sounds fresh every time I hear it, even sixteen years down the road.  The vocals are understated, but work well with the lyrics, which are basically the story of a couple falling in love and tuning everyone else out so they can just talk to each other.  And the whistling--perfection, the cherry on the top of a great indie pop single.  And another excellent addition to the musical annals that are Friday Night Jukebox.

Lyric Sheet:  "Everyone is leaving I'm still with you/It doesn't matter what we do/Where we are going too/We can stick around and see this night through..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CDXVII--Avicii: Wake Me Up

 Hard to believe, but with this week's tune we'll wrap up the eighth year of Friday Night Jukebox.  And--surprise of surprises--it's yet another tune recommended by my darling daughter.  I want to say she and my son-in-law first heard the tune when they went to Great Britain for their belated honeymoon...but the memory, while still pretty good, isn't quite what it used to be, so I won't swear to it.  I do remember that she wasn't sure I'd like it (not an unreasonable assumption based on my being an old fart and it being some of that newfangled music), but it proved to be a special single and so here we are, closing season number eight with it....

Avicii (birth name Tim Bergling) was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1989 and by the time most kids are graduating from college, he'd already had a hit record and was well on his way to becoming a superstar.  Over the course of his unfortunately short career, Avicii worked with numerous artists, had numerous releases, and was credited by some for being one of the driving forces behind electronica's transition into the mainstream in the 2010's.  His Wikipedia bio had a few too many facts to include all of them here, but it was quite obvious that he was a global phenomenon and an incredibly talented D.J.  He released three studio LPs (one posthumously), all of which reached the top twenty in the U.S., and a whopping fifty-six singles in his brief career.  He was also nominated for two Grammy Awards.  Avicii retired from performing in 2016, but the pressure from fans and management for him to return combined with serious substance abuse issues eventually led to his all too untimely death from suicide in 2018 at the far too young age of twenty-eight.  Just a tragic, tragic loss.

Fun Fact:  Avicii took his name from Avici, which is the lowest level of hell in Buddhism and the one with the most suffering.  It is also one of the twenty-eight hells in Hinduism...so there's a hell of a lot of hells when it comes to Avici.

"Wake Me Up" was the first single released from Avicii's debut album, True.  The single reached #4 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit number one in thirty-one countries (so many cool kids around the world!).  The album hit #5 on the Billboard 200 and #1 in four other countries, including his native Sweden.

I'd be the first to admit my knowledge of electronica is just slightly north of my knowledge of string theory, but from the acoustic guitar intro from co-writer Mike Einziger of Incubus, to the soulful vocals of co-writer Aloe Blacc, to the swirling electronica added by co-writer Avicii, it's not too hard to understand just how special this collaboration was.  It's poignant, euphoric, and soothing all at once, as well as groundbreaking with the melding of folk/country with electronica (known as Folktronica).  I've mentioned it a time or two before, but every now and again musically everything falls into place on a particular piece of music and we as fans are fortunate enough to witness brilliance--and Avicii's "Wake Me Up" is just one more instance of our very good fortune.

Lyric Sheet:  "Tried carrying the weight of the world/But I only have two hands/I hope I get the chance to travel the world/But I don't have any plans..."

Enjoy:

Republicans = Losers

Peace,

emaycee

The republican party approved this message

The president of the Heritage Foundation embracing the revival of Italian fascism as a win for his team. https://t.co/7MCHDVgi5E

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) September 26, 2022

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

 

The eyes of Dark Brandon

In the past week:

- Top Al-Queda leader killed
- Sinema agrees to IRA deal
- Finland + Sweden approved to NATO
- CHIPs + PACT Act passed
- Uninsured rate at 8%
- 50 days of decreasing gas
- 2nd exc. order on abortion rights
- 76 judges confirmed

YOU WILL KNEEL TO DARK BRANDON pic.twitter.com/remIYGFgyW

— shiv 🇺🇸 (@BeshearStan) August 5, 2022

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

 

Are you ready to swing your purse?

Now this is a statue:
In 1985 Danuta Danielsson was on the streets of her town in Sweden when a Neo-Nazi march went past.
Ms. Danielson's mother had been at Auschwitz and she waded into the fascists and hit the Nazi with her handbag. pic.twitter.com/eTy1RYuDpu

— Charlie Angus (@CharlieAngusNDP) April 13, 2022

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

 

Domino 1 falls in Putin's massive fuck up

🚨 Non-Nato members Sweden and Finland will attend tomorrow's Nato summit according to @jensstoltenberg

— Shona Murray (@ShonaMurray_) February 24, 2022

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

 

Once again, Karen and Ken

If you don't think you've got it, you've got it

One of the truly great mysteries of life these days is what possesses any white American to think they have any right whatsoever to question the social actions of any black American.  All that's going to happen is you're going to eat a much deserved shit sandwich.

I note this because we had two instances this past week of white folks passing along their "wisdom" to black folks with all the elan of Donald Trump when he tries to seduce women by grabbing them by the p*****. First,  Megyn Kelly (worked for racist Fox News and couldn't hold keep her job at non-racist NBC) went on Bill Maher's (look up insufferable in the dictionary and Maher's picture is featured) HBO show Real Time and told black Americans how they're children should be educated (apparently has something to do with not having Kelly's kids take part in black history and Maher unabashedly accentuating his white privilege).  One supposes they were just keeping it "real."

Second, Swedish tennis pro Zlatan Ibrahimovic took time this week to give social activist hero Lebron James some advice about his outspokenness on issues facing black Americans, telling James in essence that he should just shut up and dribble.  James had a good chuckle, vowed he would never quit, and was polite enough to not say "Who the fuck is Zlatan Ibrahimovic?" like I did.  On the bright side, as a tennis player, Ibrahimovic is quite familiar with unforced errors.

Look, when it comes to the issues facing black Americans I'm neither an expert nor do I have the answers.  But I am smart enough to know that no group in the history of mankind has had a cushier berth than white American males such as myself, and maybe it's best if I just shut up and listen when folks whose life experiences do not remotely match mine are advocating for themselves.

527,000+ Dead Americans Because of Donald Trump's Incompetence

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXXIII--The Teddybears featuring Iggy Pop: Punkrocker

This week's tune has a bit of the bittersweet to it, as it was introduced to me by my nephew Josh, who we lost last July to the ravages of ALS at the all too young age of 34.  Rest in peace, Josh--and thanks for the tune...

The Teddybears hail from Stockholm, Sweden, and originally formed in 1991.  They started out as a hardcore punk band (as Teddybears STHLM) but over the years have incorporated electronica, hip-hop, rock, and reggae into their music (and are now just the plain old Teddybears).  Over the course of their career they have released 7 albums, 5 EPs, and 18 singles--which must have done quite well in their native Sweden but have done fuck-all here in the States for all the information I could find on their chart success.  Since 2006 the band members have begun donning bear masks for all of their tours and album artwork...I suppose because they can.

Fun Fact:  Because so many Norwegian and Swedish hardcore metal bands (don't know why but it seems a bit odd that such bands hail from Scandinavia, too) have dark and macabre sounding names, the Teddybears went for something soft and cuddly...just to be a wee bit different.

"Punkrocker" was originally released in 2000 on the album Rock 'n' Roll Highschool (no relation to the Ramones soundtrack of the same name, near as I can tell).  It was re-released in 2006, this time with vocals featuring Iggy Pop on their album Soft Machine, which is the version we're celebrating this week.  The Wikipedia entry for "Punkrocker" said it was a minor hit here in America, but I could find no proof of it ever charting so no shout out for Billboard magazine this week.  The song did have a run as the background music for a Cadillac commercial...because the first thing I think of when I think of Cadillac is punk rock....

For those who sit around and wonder, like me, just how important vocals are in rock and roll, one only has to compare the original version of "Punkrocker" to know the answer.  I gave it a listen and it's a nice little pop tune that had I heard back when it was first released, I probably would have liked.  But I tell you what, give the lead vocals to Iggy Pop, and the song soars from nice little pop tune into the realms of great pop singles.  There's a desperation to his vocals that ties in perfectly with the mood of the song, and it takes quite a vocalist to make nihilism sound cool, but Iggy pull that off, too.  The Teddybears liven it up with some scrumptious drumming that really drives the song and some subtle guitar and even a bit of synthesizer that carries it to Catchy As All Hell Heaven.  I defy you to listen to the chorus and not have it swimming in your head happily for the next week.  In a testament to its high quality, it's the kind of song that will almost make you forgive Sweden for ABBA....

Lyric Sheet:  "See me die on Bleecker Street/I'm bored with being good/See me sneering in my car/I'm driving to my star...

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump.
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. XCII--The Hives: Hate to Say I Told You So

While I most certainly hope it never happens, if I ever go stark raving mad, running down the streets of Michigan, screaming like a completely out of his mind lunatic, I'm sure that the song providing the soundtrack for it will be "Hate to Say I Told You So" by the Hives.

Formed in either 1989 or 1993 ( I write 'em, you pick em'), the Hives are a Swedish band that became "overnight sensations" in the early 2000's with their garage rock meets pop music sensibilities.  Over the course of their still somewhat young career, they've released five LPs, three LPs, and have developed a reputation as one of the best live bands going.  They've had a little more commercial and chart success overseas than here in the states, but nonetheless are one of the more fun and lively bands going these days.

Released on their Veni Vidi Vicious LP in 2000, "Hate to Say I Told You So" could best be described as frenzied or frenetic or furious or fevered or frantic or (now that I've run out of  F synonyms) manic or crazed or wild (thank God for the thesaurus).  The song starts with thirty seconds of hyperactive guitar that sounds like it's being played through a bullhorn while jumping up and down on a pogo stick, before there's a short lull with just a drum banging to and fro, before lead vocalist Howlin' Pelle Almqvist shreds his vocal cords with some of the most in your face vocals ever recorded by a pop musician.  And it continues unbridled for three more minutes, with the guitars thrashing, the drums bashing and the vocals slashing, an ode to nihilism or a prayer to the id, and even now, some sixteen years down the road it is still every bit the numbness reducing, demon releasing grandiose pop tune it was the first time I heard it.

And you can thank the gods of music for bequeathing to us all the glory that is power pop...

Rap sheet:  "Gonna get through your head what the mystery man said/Because I'm gonna..."

Enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee